Dr. Kenneth P. Weiss

Kenneth P. Weiss, Ph.D.
founded Security Dynamics in 1984 and served as CEO until 1986 and
Chairman of the Board and CTO until 1996. The company’s security
products  the SecurID Card
[1]
and RSA encryption  have become
world
standard technologies for computer security and electronic commerce and
authentication. The company has been ranked among the top 100 software
companies in the world. In 2006 the company was purchased by EMC corp.

The three branches of the United States government, including the
Defense Department, Treasury, Senate and the White House, use SecurID
technology, as well as most Fortune 500 companies and the governments
and major corporations in more than 30 countries.

Once the SecurID’s potential was recognized by both customers and
investors, he set out to expand his company, and he initiated
the purchase in 1993 of RSA, a small, fledgling, encryption company
that was gaining some notoriety in the field of internet commerce
security. The next year, he brought Security Dynamics public on the
NASDAQ stock exchange. Ken, the company’s largest individual
shareholder, resigned from Security Dynamics in 1996
[2]
after the company
achieved a market capitalization of more than $4 billion.

With his multi-faceted background  as a professor of psychology,
entrepreneur, business/management/marketing executive, and human
factors engineer  and with more than 30 years of experience in
computer system design, Ken brings a unique perspective to high
technology entrepreneurship and the field of information security. He
is an internationally recognized authority, spokesperson, author, and
inventor, with nineteen (19) U.S. patents and numerous foreign patents
to his credit. He currently has three seminal patents pending to
address identity theft, secure financial transactions (eliminating
multiple credit cards), and a substantially improved replacement for
the SecurID card.

Ken has taught at several colleges and universities, including
Penn State, University of Bridgeport, and Nasson College, as well as at
Kings College, where he was chairman of the psychology department for
seven years and was an extensively published professor, authoring
chapters in textbooks. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the
University of Bridgeport; continued graduate studies and research at
the University of New Hampshire and Temple University; and he earned a
doctorate degree from the Neotarian Fellowship. He is a member of
several professional organizations, including the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, and honor societies such as Sigma Xi
and Psi Chi.

From 1975 to 1983 he was President and CEO of Contax Systems, a
manufacturer of human-engineered, computer-aided dispatching systems.
He is now Chairman and CEO of
Strategic Diversity Inc., a private
holding company with interests in intellectual property licensing,
private equity investment and other projects. He serves as a director
on the boards of several companies.

As a widely published author and acknowledged authority in information
systems security and computer crime and abuse, Ken has published
more than 50 professional journal articles and has presented speeches
on information security throughout the world and has held U.S.
Department of Defense security clearance. His innovations
and financial success have been featured by a broad range of media,
including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington
Post, Christian Science Monitor, Fortune (cover story), several feature
articles in the Boston Globe, national and international network
television and radio programs and business and industry publications.

He was on the editorial board of the Journal of Information Systems
Security, was chairman of the identification and authentication
division of the American Defense Preparedness Association’s committee
on computer security, and a member of the Technology and Ethics
Committee of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA). He
has been named to Who’s Who in Computers and to Leaders in
American Innovation.

Still engaged in technology entrepreneurship and innovation primarily
through his own private firm, Strategic Diversity Inc., Ken acts
as an “angel” investor in start-up ventures which he feels have the
potential to have a positive influence on the environment, society, and
humanity.

In addition to the physical sciences, his interests also include
yachting and high performance automobile collecting. In 2000 after a
worldwide search he acquired the high tech, computerized, sailing yacht
GITANA, a 118-foot cutter-rigged sloop designed and built by Perini
Navi of Italy. The vessel has undergone an extensive refit with loving
attention to restoration and enhancement of original features since his
purchase. Gitana was sold in December 2006.

Ken is also
involved in the communities in which he resides, both as a participant
and officer in civic organizations and as a benefactor to a diverse
group of philanthropies with a focus on culture, education of youth and
the preservation and restoration of historic buildings. Some of those
groups include the Cape Ann Symphony, Gloucester Stage Co., Gloucester
Schooner Festival, historical meeting house restoration, Cape Ann
Historical Association, and The Perfect Storm Foundation, as well as
Boston-area urban health care centers, the Lahey Clinic, and political
action groups. In addition to his own direct and financial
participation, he has often hosted events or receptions in one of his
homes or his yacht to promote more involvement and fund-raising within
the community.

NOTES

1. Ken’s SecurID technology  still the core
product, greater than
80% of
all
revenue, of the company he alone founded  is based on the premise
that
a password alone is not enough to secure a computer network. The
SecurID introduced two-factor authentication  something you know
(a
password) and something uncounterfeitable you have (a token, i.e., the
card) to solve the problem of unauthorized network access. To prove to
a computer that a user has the token in his possession at a specific
moment, a digital display produces a random up to 8-digit number every
60 seconds. Through a patented algorithmic process, that same number is
simultaneously synchronized and produced within the host computer. If
the password and numbers match, access is granted. The powerful
algorithm has never been broken. The entire core SecurID technologies
are exclusively Ken’s inventions and patents.

2. An investigative financial reporter wrote: Ken
resigned in
protest in 1996 after becoming concerned about the inappropriate
influence of the venture capitalist controlled board of directors and
the integrity, motivation, and lack of vision exhibited by the CEO he
had hired. His concerns focused on board member independence,
abuses associated corporate governance, the improper backdating of
executive options and the non-exploitation commercially of some of his
patents. He was convinced that the company could not maintain its value
and growth and would loose its value under the entrenched management.
Indeed, after his resignation, the company lost more than 90
percent of its value.

Ken arranged for his resignation
letter to
be sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). (available online) Years later his concerns were reflected in a scathing
article published by a highly respected
online investment newsletter.
Backdating of options has become a current major national concern and
the SEC has implemented new controls. Subsequent to his departure, the
company has had independent actions filed against it by other investors
and the SEC.